Kruger National Park part 2

Lower Sabie

At the end of another long and rewarding day we checked into Lower Sabie rest camp, a very popular Camp on the banks of the Sabie River. Here is a look at the main structure from the nearby bridge. 

A troupe of Baboons occupied the bridge and it was fun watching the youngsters playing around under the watchful eye of their adult minders.

That evening we turned in early, having booked an early morning night drive. This involves an excursion in a special open truck with high seats for good viewing, and being provided with hand-held searchlights for picking out eye reflections in the bush. 

Fiery-necked Nightjar - caprimulgus pectoralis

So we set off long before sunrise the next day, and started picking up night species almost immediately. Nightjars sat on the road and were caught in the headlights. This one is a Fiery-necked Nightjar. There were others but it was extremely difficult to distinguish the different species in artificial light.

Swamp Nightjar - caprimulgus natalensis

For example the one shown above looks almost identical. But note the white edge to the tail. This is characteristic of only one Nightjar species, the Swamp Nightjar. A declining species due to ploughing of grassland, but unaffected in here.

Verreaux's Eagle Owl - bubo lacteaus

Verreaux's Eagle Owl, otherwise known as the Giant Eagle Owl is a large, rapacious and formidable raptor. It takes a wide range of animals and birds as prey up to half-grown monkey size, for example Pels Fishing Owl, Flamingos and Herons are all included as prey. We watched them taking frogs which is what they feed the young on.

Verreaux's Eagle Owl - bubo lacteaus

At one point our way was blocked by a Pride of Lions sprawled across the road. Many of them just young cubs. None of them seemed at all bothered by the headlights and the proximity of our vehicle. We waited and watched and naturally took photographs. Even though it was artificial light the results were impressive because these magnificent wild animals were so close.

The cubs were happy to sit warming their bellies on the tarmac which had obviously retained heat rom the previous day's sunshine. They were constantly under the watchful gaze of the mother Lioness.

Another bird that likes to stand on the road at night is the Water Thick-knee. Very similar to our Stone Curlew they probably also enjoy the heat of the tarmac which has absorbed sunlight all day.

Water Thick-knee - burhinus vermiculatus

In the first rays of the dawn sun a number of birds that like the grassy roadside verges appeared. Double-banded Sandgrouse was perhaps the most interesting, particularly the male that has the banded pattern on its face that gives the species its name.

Double-banded Sandgrouse - pterocles bicinctus

The female below is not as spectacular as the male but is easily recognised by the yellow orbital eye-ring.

Double-banded Sandgrouse female - pterocles bicinctus

After our night ride and a good breakfast we once again headed out into the Park, making our way North and looking for photo opportunities, particularly of anything new.

There were plenty of hirundines and swifts around. Little Swifts are probably the most numerous but there were others that I could not identify confidently. Palm Swifts certainly, White-rumped almost certainly and others I could hazard a guess at but I can't be sure of. I find it very difficult to get a focus on them in flight, Stephen had considerably more success than me with his EOS 7D Mk 2 which seems to have a much faster and better focusing system than my old Mk 1.

Little Swift - apus affinis

Because of the difficulty I had in capturing them in flight I took several opportunities to photograph resting Swallows. The Red-breasted Swallow below was perfect.

Red-breasted Swallow - cecropis semirufa

Lesser-striped Swallows were quite common and I was very pleased to get a decent shot of one of these interesting hirundines at rest on a vicious looking thorn tree.

Lesser Striped Swallow - cecropis abyssinica

Barn Swallows were still here. Soon they would be leaving for Northern climes but they were still present in numbers. These are a couple of juveniles and I marvel at the distances they must have covered in their young lives, having been born somewhere in Europe or at least in the Northern hemisphere.

Young Barn Swallows

I did manage a half decent shot of a Wire-tailed Swallow in flight from the bridge as it passed beneath us.

Wire-tailed Swallow - hirundo smithii

If the subject is large enough I can get a focus with my 500mm lens, but it was much faster and easier with the old 400mm f5.6. nevertheless I did manage to get a few flight shots. This one is an African Hawk Eagle

African Hawk Eagle - aquilar spilogaster

It was much easier with the White-headed Vulture below as I had a bead on it when it was perched, giving me a pretty good take-off and subsequent flight sequence.

White-headed Vulture - trigonoceps occipitalis

White-headed Vulture - trigonoceps occipitalis

White-headed Vulture - trigonoceps occipitalis

White-headed Vulture - trigonoceps occipitalis

Doves and Pigeons are not the most exciting birds, they are mostly common species well adapted to human habitation so therefore a bit uninteresting. I do like the Namaqua Dove though, it is a lot different in appearance from the usual doves being very small, say budgerigar sized. The male has a jet black throat and face on a white belly, long black tail, steely grey uppers and a delicately shaped orange bill. The primaries show chestnut brown in flight. A star amongst doves for sure.

Namaqua Dove - oena capensis

Here's another Hornbill, an African Gray Hornbill. This bird nest in holes in trees and they block the female inside the hole with mud once the eggs are laid. They leave a small opening just big enough for the male to pass food through to the female, who only unblocks the hole once the chicks are fledged. 

African Grey Hornbill - tockus nasutus

The male Southern Red Bishop is a very bright orange or red and it has a habit of puffing its feathers out when calling which makes it look like an animated bumble bee. 

Southern Red Bishop - euplectes orix

Southern Red Bishop - euplectes orix

It was great to see Black-shouldered Kites, one of my favourite raptors. We see them here in Spain but it was good to get quite close to capture those fiery red eyes. Superb.

Black-shouldered Kite - elanus caeruleus

This one was a new bird for me, the Arrow-marked Babbler is a very striking species with silver-flecked black plumage and fierce two-tone eyes, yellow, rimmed with red. Nice.

Arrow-marked Babbler - turdoides jardineii

View of the Veldt from a height.

Again I stress that this is a birding blog but I like to remind myself, and the reader of the sights and flavour of where we are. The landscape is sometimes spectacular and the wildlife is prolific. The Elephants below are enjoying a bathe in the Sabie River, I could see one or two getting quite frisky, doing their bit to maintain the elephant population.

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Elephants in the Sabie River

At one of our frequent stops to photograph the very numerous Rollers we struck it lucky with one that had just picked up a large Saddle-backed Bush Cricket (Ephippiger). A sizable lunch for the bird but I wonder what happens to all that hard shell (Chitin) on the insect. I expect the Roller regurgitates it, I have seen many birds do this in pellets.

European Roller - coracias garrulus, with Ephippiger

European Roller - coracias garrulus

It was with great pleasure that we photographed this superb Hobby, nicely perched on a dead tree. Although this is a raptor we see in Europe it is not often we get such a good opportunity as this.  It looks very noble in this pose, master of its surroundings.

Hobby - Eurasian Hobby - falco subbuteo

The Saddle-billed Stork is a truly stunning bird. Statuesque and colourful. The amazing scarlet and black bill with the yellow saddle is a real eye-catcher and its overall appearance is clean-cut and graceful. Combined with its very large size, males reach 1.5 m. in height, It has to be the best looking stork of them all.

Saddle-billed Stork - ephippiorhynchus senegalensis

Here's another imposing bird, the Yellow-billed Stork. In the breeding season its plumage becomes pink on the upperwings and back, and the otherwise brown legs also turn bright pink. The bill turns a deeper yellow and the face deep red, so overall it is a colourful sight.

Yellow-billed Stork - mycteria ibis

The shot below is posted to show the Stork together with some African Spoonbills as I neglected to get a decent shot of that species, being too wrapped up with the Stork.

Yellow-billed Stork with African Spoonbills - platalea alba

Here's another resident of the river, a classic Nile Crocodile. Averaging 5 m. in length they are the second largest reptile on Earth, after the Saltwater Crocodile. They sometimes reach 6m or even longer.

Nile Crocodile

The Buffalo is one animal that has to protect its young from crocodiles. All animals have to drink though, and need to cross rivers when to find new, fresh pastures, so they often fall prey to the big crocs.

Buffalo

We were very pleased to come across our first Broad-billed Roller this morning. Another very handsome member of the Roller family.

Broad-billed Roller - eurystomus glaucurus

With so many impressive birds and animals around it was easy to overlook the small bird species, of which there were many. The on below for example is a Wailing Cisticola, one of nineteen species of South African Cisticolas. We probably saw a lot of them but distinguishing them in the field is very difficult. At least we know this one is correct.

Wailing Cisticola - cisticola lais

Here's a shot of a juvenile Carmine Bee-eater I post it together with another shot of an adult bird just because of the colour and beauty of this species.

Carmine Bee-eater (juv) - merops nubicoides

Carmine Bee-eater - merops nubicoides

Yes, it's Big Bird. I think of the Ostrich as a species of game animal rather than a bird. But it is feathered and officially a member of the bird family. So here it is.

The raptor below is the endangered Tawny Eagle. Seen here with an unfortunate bird kill.

Tawny Eagle - aquila rapax

After a long and eventful day during which we had covered a lot of miles Northwards, we checked in to Olifants Rest Camp. This is about half way up the Park and is situated on a height overlooking the Olifants River swirling around below. It had been a fantastic few days and we were approaching the half-way stage of our wildlife adventure. We needed a good night's sleep, it had been a very early start and we had covered a lot of miles. But time waits for no man, it would be another early morning looking for the early birds and whatever the next day would bring.